Here's to Harold Bare in Charlottesville

Yesterday morning, I had a lengthy conversation with the pastor of a local Protestant (evangelisch) church. He had invited me to his office to share with him the insights from my dissertation which centers on the growth of evangelicalism in 49 countries. He had read a small sample of my literature review; recognizing a few names (e.g., Fink, Stark, Weber).

In many places in Germany, local Protestant congregations are getting smaller and older. Subsequently many of their pastors (and those in our circles, too) are looking for ways to reinvent their parishes. I mentioned the leadership conferences from Willow Creek in which they have brought top business executives and consultants to Germany. (This year's line up includes Bill Hybels, Jimmy Carter , Carly Fiorina [former CEO of Hewlitt-Packard], and Patrick Lencioni (author and consultant.) The pastor stated that he objected to marketing approaches to church ministry; rather one should begin with Jesus. And I have no objections to a Christo-centric approach to ministry.

Then my mind went back to our pastor in Charlottesville, Virginia - Harold Bare. "Pastor Bare" had finished his dissertation at UVA on "The Evolution of a Sacred Bureaucracy". We have spoken several times at length with each other about his study. He begins by using the premise from Max Weber that sacred and secular organizations operate on consistent sociological principles, i.e., sacred organizations are bureaucratically no different than secular organizations. Using my conversations with Bare, I was able to encourage the local pastor (here in Germany) to think differently about the situations he is facing in his own parish.